Since the GRASSHOPPER project ended in March 2022 the testing campaign of the pilot plant has continued. The project developed, built, and tested the next generation of PEMFC for industrial applications. Tests done to date have demonstrated automatic mode operation and power demand adaptation capabilities. 50% electrical efficiency, even at dynamic operation, has been achieved. The pilot plant can achieve full power (100 kWe gross, 80 kWe net power) over time and modulate from 50 to 100% in less than 20 s and from 0 to full load in less than 60 sec from a warm standby mode.

Building on the experiences of the pilot plant the GRASSHOPPER team has designed a modular 2 MW scale low-cost fuel cell power plant with grid supporting capability. The CAPEX of a unitary 2 MW flexible and dynamic fuel cell power plant for grid balancing has been estimated to be 1500 €/kW. The mass production of several of these plants at a production scale of 25 MW/yr could reduce the total cost by 10-20%, reaching 1200-1360 €/kWe.

The project has also achieved outstanding results at MEA (membrane electrode assembly) and stack levels. MEA platinum content has been reduced by >80% A cell with an active area of 300 cm2 designed for mass manufacturing was finalised and tested in a short stack showing a performance of 0.689 V at 1 A/cm2, increasing the power density by 60% relative previous technology. This has allowed the design of single stacks of 27 KW nominal power what represents 4 times the power of the stacks used for the first generation of this type of plants (developed in the former Clean Hydrogen JU project DEMCOPEM 2MW)

Since the project ended, the plant continued to be tested in Sevilla and is currently in operation at the Kleefsesewaard Industrial Park, Arnhem, Netherlands, where Nedstack facilities are located.

As a spin-off activity of the GRASSHOPPER project, funding has been awarded to Nedstack (under the umbrella of the Important Project of Common European Interest Hy2Tech) to build a GW scale factory which should allow the mass manufacturing of the GRASSHOPPER technology, contributing to bring this technology closer to commercialisation.